Lewis-Beale Houses

This much-altered pair of houses masquerading as a large single house was designed for the father and brother-in-law of Allen Evans, Furness's junior partner. Characteristic notes include the massive chimneys, decorative bands of patterned brick, and the immense scroll that visually supports the fourth-floor dormer. Furness also designed the adjacent brownstone-faced Horstman house at 238 S. 13th (demolished for the expansion of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; PH65), a pair of carriage houses on the 1300 block of Irving Street, and at least four houses on the 1300 block of Locust Street, including the now wrecked house for Mrs. Caspar Wister, Furness's sister, at 1322 Locust Street. The best preserved is the house for J. Gardner Cassatt (brother of artist Mary Cassatt and of A. J. Cassatt) that stands at 1320 Locust. After Joseph Huston made its interior more genteel in 1901, the house was restored in 2001–2002 by Becker-Winston Architects as a scholars’ residence for the Library Company, whose modern building stands next door (1964, Carroll, Grisdale and Van Alen). Another halfa-dozen Furness houses can be found just to the east on the 1200 block of Locust Street, as well as other houses that seem to offer commentary on his work.